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Give Syrian-Armenians space

There is a large Armenian community still in Syria, though it has been reduced quite a bit mostly by emigration to the west. Now that the situation in the country has deteriorated rapidly, many have been applying for Armenian citizenship as a backup plan, and many others have thinking about or actually moving to Armenia. There is already a community of Syrian Armenians in Armenia who have been doing business in and living in Armenia for many years, which helps to some degree in encouraging others to come.

Most of the immigrants will no doubt want to live in Yerevan, but as an alternative, they should be given another option. Many of them are part of a tight-knit community and it may help to give them the opportunity to recreate their community here as something of a Nor Haleb.

Perhaps a town close to Yerevan like Armavir or Ashtarak could be the focus of official resettlement? Or something further like Ijevan or Shushi? Open a school there where Western Armenian is the language of instruction, but Eastern Armenian is also taught. Convert a building into a community center for them. Make them feel welcome and have a real and familiar community rebuilt so that they don’t move on from Armenia as soon as they possibly can, but instead put down roots and establish themselves in their homeland…